Well, we're back in the Felis Empire this chapter, and we witness the fall of an Emperor. One thing I will say is that this is probably the darkest chapter I've written so far, with a body count approaching "Game of Thrones." territory. If you believe this fic should be recategorised as M, I quite understand, but in my defence, I've seen plenty of equally dark or worse fanfiction under the T rating. So unless I get a huge outcry, the story will remain T. Many thanks to all my reviewers, followers and favouriters (if that is a word.) As usual, I only own my OC's but given that there are only three official Sonic characters appearing this chapter, it turns out I do own most of the characters this week...
TIME: 16 August 3324
PLACE: Imperial palace, Starlight City, Felis Empire
Princess Blaze looked up in slight alarm as the palace shook slightly. Putting down her textbook of "Introspections On Leadership," and slipping her reading glasses into the pocket of her purple riding jacket, she hopped down from her seat and walked quickly over to the door to her chambers. Looking out, she saw her father striding past. "Father?" the princess called. "Is that an earthquake?" Emperor Solar stopped, turning to face his daughter. "No, Ororo. It's an attack. It seems that the terrorist called Eggman has grown bold enough to strike Imperial soil. I want you to go with Honey and prepare for evacuation. I've already given the same command to Flare and Kanna." The emperor bent down and kissed his younger daughter on the forehead. "I will always love you, blazy." Blaze smiled at her childhood nickname, but her face soon became serious again. "What about you, father?" The emperor's face hardened. "It is the duty of a leader to protect his people, so I will fulfil my leader's imperative." Then he was gone, striding purposefully down the palace corridor.
A young cat, maybe a year or two older than Blaze, golden yellow in colour with dark hair styled into twin pigtails, hazel brown eyes and unusually enormous ears tipped with white tufts of fur, walked quietly up to the princess from where she had been standing unobtrusively in an alcove. She was wearing the outfit of a maid, with a black dress to just above the knee, a white apron, white lace trim on the hem of her dress and sleeves, a frilly lace cap and black stockings and shoes. The only two things that pegged her as slightly different from the other palace maids were a stylish red velvet choker around her neck and a slight, barely noticeable bulge in the upper back area of her dress. "If you would accompany me, my lady, I have already drawn up a list of items that may prove useful in an evacuation situation." A sly smile passed over Blaze's face. "Honey, were you eavesdropping?" The other cat blushed. "No!" she declared, her eyes shifting back and forth, before she made a cute gesture, putting her two index fingers together a few inches under her chin and admitting "Maybe?" Despite the serious situation, Blaze burst out laughing at the antics of Honey, her personal maid and attendant.
Honey was a low-level member of House Aetherion, one of the five great clans of the Felis Empire. Driven by a desire to better herself, she had volunteered for the inter-house cultural exchange scheme, and as a result, had ended up as a maid in the service of House Incendrius. It was not long before it became apparent that Honey was not cut out for domestic service. She was inadvertently destructive to an amazing level, and virtually every shift she was assigned to ended with something valuable being accidentally smashed, ripped or trodden on. Honey was saved from dismissal by grace of two things. Firstly, she had become the personal favourite of Princess Blaze. Secondly, Blaze had quickly discovered Honey's talent for designing and putting together stylish outfits of every kind. As a result, Honey was reassigned as Blaze's personal attendant, a term covering seamstress, bodyguard and confidante. Her bodyguard duties had resulted from her knowledge of martial arts, coupled with a keen eye for using throwing weapons and another, more esoteric talent related to the clan of her birth. Blaze smiled at her servant and friend. "I won't tell father if you don't. Now, tell me what I need to pack."
Emperor Solar marched out of the palace onto a balcony overlooking the courtyard and beyond, the city. The sky was filled with the same small, tubby, silver and yellow aircraft that had been so effective against the United Federation. Only now, they were dive-bombing and strafing the city. His city. His people.
A feral snarl escaped Solar's lips as the temperature around him spiked. The railings under his clenching fists started to warp and melt in the sudden heat. The emperor roared at the top of his voice as a shroud of white fire enveloped him, a roar that amplified the leader of the Felis Empire's voice into the screech of some eldritch bird of prey. Solar rose into the air above the palace, and several of the Egg Planes registered this new threat and moved to intercept. Contemptuously, Solar lashed out with a wave of fire that temporarily made it seem like the sky was burning. As the blast passed by, the sky was filled with explosions of yellow, each shining star marking the end of an Egg Plane. The robots on the streets of Starlight City looked up, almost as if they were afraid now that they had lost their air cover. And, in a heavily shielded command shuttle at the rear of the attacking Eggman Empire army, the sub-commander assigned to this battle zone put his well-informed plan into action.
A binary command sent three Egg Tankers rushing towards the emperor. Solar frowned, wondering as to the purpose of this gambit. Egg Tankers were merely huge fuel tanks with wings, engines and simple robotic brains attached. They had absolutely no value in an attack, as they were not fitted with even defensive armament. This was how Solar made his final error. He hesitated, and thus he was lost. The Egg Tankers closed into a tight circle around Solar and activated their self-destruct protocols. The tanks that formed the bodies of the tankers ruptured, releasing not burning fuel as would normally be the case, but clouds of supercooled carbon dioxide. The heavy gas sank downwards quickly, but it lingered long enough to starve even Solar's white hot fire of both heat and oxygen. Shivering, half-asphyxiated, Solar fell from the skies like a meteorite, crashing to the ground in the palace courtyard.
Unable to move, Solar dimly saw someone walking over to his fallen body. The figure crouched, and Solar felt a surge of relief as he recognised a member of the Imperial Court. "Ah, duke Flammen. Please, take me back to the palace… I must heal. You must rule the Empire in my stead while I recuperate." A nasty expression passed over Flammen's face. "Thank you, my lord. But you know, we cannot win this war. To safeguard our future, I have made a deal with Eggman." Flammen produced a dagger from his robes of state. "Part of the deal was to dispose of you, and I will enjoy that part of the deal greatly. I'm sure you know why." Solar stared back without any trace of fear. "I stand by my decision. Your daughter was too unstable to be released into society, which you'd see if you didn't just want to use her for your own advancement." Flammen smiled darkly. "Maybe. But although I may not see that, you won't be seeing anything ever again." The dagger came down.
A massive gold-armoured foot stomped down beside Duke Flammen. The traitor stood up and regarded the huge, gold and grey robot in the crimson cape that now stood before him. "I assume that you are the Eggman Empire's representative?" The robot nodded. "I am Brutus, strategic commander of the Felis Empire battle zone. Your plan was an effective one." Flammen gripped the dagger's hilt tightly. "Just hold up your end of the bargain. My daughter must be rescued from the palace prison tonight." Brutus called over a small detachment of the rotund orange robots that made up the rank and file of Eggman's army. "Your sentiment revolts me, flesh creature, but I will honour our bargain. These Egg Pawns will escort you into the palace. Their orders are to eliminate the other royals, but you may seek out your offspring if you feel it is necessary."
"This way, highness. We'll get out through the scullery door. It's an old trick the maids use when they want to visit their boyfriends." Blaze looked slyly at Honey. "So you have a boyfriend? Who is he?" Honey's eyes widened and she blushed. "C…can we discuss this later?" The princess and the maid ran down a spiral staircase and came to a screeching halt. In the corridor before them stood four Egg Pawns, each armed with a long silver lance. Blaze dropped into a fighting stance, but Honey threw her arm out, blocking Blaze from attacking. "Please allow me, my lady." Honey stepped forward a pace and kicked up her left heel. A small steel throwing dagger attached to a strap on her shoe flicked upwards and she caught it with a swift movement. A further quick cutting motion sent the dagger slicing into one of the Egg Pawns' domed heads between its green optics. As the first pawn fell, a second charged at Honey with lance outstretched, but Honey ducked under the spear and slashed at the pawn with another dagger, slicing through its pneumatic lines and sending it crashing to the ground. "You are excused." Honey said as calmly as if she was showing out a guest, grabbing the disabled pawn's spear and driving it through the pawn's neck. The feline maid looked up at the other two pawns as they lowered their lances and prepared to charge. "I'm afraid that this will be somewhat messy." she sighed. The slight bulge on her upper back, under her dress, twitched and moved, and there was a noise of Velcro ripping apart as two carefully cut slits opened on the back of Honey's dress, and the genetic trait of House Aetherion was revealed. Honey rose into the air, supported by her pair of beautiful white wings, and threw a pair of daggers directly downwards as she swooped over the two Egg Pawns. The daggers stabbed into the heads of the pawns and they crashed to the ground as Honey dropped gracefully back to the floor and curtseyed to Blaze. "All clean, my lady."
Duke Flammen marched into the throne room, full of his own importance. While his daughter was next on his list, his ego drove him to satisfy this urge first. "At last, the throne of the Emperor. I've always wanted to sit on it. At last, the empire will have a ruler worthy of it." he cackled. The two Egg Pawns exchanged looks that, even on their highly simplified faces, could be construed as long-suffering.
The sound of the two Egg pawns collapsing into pieces disturbed Flammen from his self-absorption. Wheeling around, Flammen found himself looking into the blade of a fine, silvered katana. He half-smiled to himself. "Empress Flare." The empress stared back at him with cold eyes. "You will not ascend to the throne while I draw breath." she stated simply. Flammen sneered at the empress. "You won't kill me. Without your husband to back you up, you're just a weak little rich girl who doesn't have the guts." Flare kept her gaze on the treacherous duke. Her katana grazed his throat, drawing a thin line of blood. "You bet your life?" she asked quietly and evenly. Flammen looked into her eyes and his smug smile vanished. He was looking into the eyes of someone with no hope left, nothing left to live for except her revenge. His hand dropped to his own weapon, already knowing it was too late. His head hit the ground, his body falling beside it a moment later. Empress Flare leant against the throne of the Emperor, breathing heavily. Blood soaked the back of her kimono, the result of a trio of machine gun bullets from an Egg Pawn's gun, which were far more effective than their bulky, almost comical appearance suggested. She dimly heard the doors to the throne room being thrown open, and vowed that she would not live to become a hostage. "Pyre…Blaze…live to fight another day." she smiled weakly as she plunged the katana into her chest.
Commander Brutus stopped in front of a massive, reinforced steel vault door on the lowest level of the palace. There were already eight Egg Pawns there, trying to force the door open. "Stand aside." Brutus ordered. As the pawns scuttled out of the way, Brutus squared up to the door and hit the centre four times with planet-cracking force. The vault doors buckled and swung wide.
Brutus had already heard of the quite frankly embarrassing death of Duke Flammen, cut down in his moment of triumph by the mortally wounded empress. He felt no real interest or regret. The duke was already coming to the end of his usefulness. However, from the duke's ranting about his imprisoned daughter, the main spur that led him to betray his nation, what the girl could provide to Eggman's war effort was something special indeed. Brutus entered the vault, which was revealed to be much smaller than the outside would suggest. In the centre, restrained by shackles strong enough to hold an elephant, was a white furred female cat in her early twenties. Clad in a simple black outfit that provided a stark contrast to her white fur, her eyes were closed as if she was asleep. Brutus knelt before the duke's daughter. "Ignis Selvaria, can you hear me?" A moment of silence passed, followed by the white cat speaking softly. "Just as the philosophers say, the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of pain and suffering, for without pain and suffering, life has no meaning." The cat's eyelids flicked open, revealing a pair of blood-red irises, even as Brutus stepped back, his sensors registering a significant background temperature rise. The heavy shackles shattered and the cat rose to her feet, burning with blue-white fire and fixing Brutus with a hellfire glare. "Allow me to grant your life meaning."
Some distance away, in the smoking rubble of what had until recently been a small but prosperous market town, an Egg Pawn turned to face a small flying robot shaped like a metal bluebottle. A rapid exchange of binary took place, and as the courier robot buzzed away from the direction it had come from, the Egg Pawn announced its new orders to its compatriots. "Commander Brutus has ordered our unit to proceed to grid sector 71C immediately." Without a word, the unit of robotic soldiers lined up and marched off. None remained to see a pile of rubble shake and collapse, and a dusty, grimy, bruised figure emerge from under what had once been a house. "Brutus. I will remember that name." the figure growled in a youthful but husky female voice, before tying her matted blue hair back with a short length of dirt-stained white ribbon and limping off in the opposite direction to the robots.
Well, that was all pretty horrible. At least Blaze and Honey got away. Speaking of Honey, this is the "lost" character from the Sonic Fighters game who recently got her happy ending when she was included in the Xbox live/PSN version of Sonic Fighters, and then appeared in the Archie comics. I changed her outfit and job for the simple reason that I've been playing far too much Fire Emblem Fates recently. Check out some of Honey's moves and lines, and you'll find that they're virtually identical to the FEF characters Felicia and Jakob. Oh, and I made her wings real rather than just part of her costume. It's always been debatable whether Honey's wings are real or fake, but given that she can use them to glide in the Sonic Fighters game, that suggests to me that they're real. Also, Brutus is not my character. He appeared several times in the British Fleetway comics as a super powerful robot commander who was programmed with a copy of Eggman/Robotnik's brain patterns. He remains fairly unique, as he is pretty much the only enemy that Sonic was unable to defeat in any continuity. Fortunately for Sonic, Brutus rebelled against Eggman, who destroyed him with one of his machines. Anyway, next time, things get even worse for the world as Eggman attacks the Acorn Kingdom, and Sonic's hometown is at Ground Zero...
